Stock Up on Family Snacks for Under $40

Stock Up on Family Snacks for Under $40 Brook: Coupon Mom, I have a husband and three kids snack eating machines. We’re spending $140.00 a month on snacks and sodas alone. I challenge you to buy snacks for an entire family for $40.00 a month. I don’t think it could be done. Stephanie Nelson: Brook, you’re not alone. The average American household spends 13% of their grocery budget on snacks and beverages but with the low strategic shopping, I can show you how to get a whole month’s worth of snacks for less than $30.00. If you don’t believe it, I’ll show you how. An easy way to save on beverages is to get rid of the individual packaging like individual cans and bottles. In fact, you can save about 83% if you make your own drinks from drink mixes. Keep the high cost to packaging. Don’t buy the individual bags of chips. You’ll spend 75% more than if you just bought the big bag. You don’t need to pay people with chips that are bad for you. If you’re looking for healthy snacks, you might think those 100 calorie snack packs are a good deal but they’re actually expensive. They can be as much as $0.45 each. Now, on the other hand, this apple which has always been a 100 calories is about $0.17 and this banana, a 100 calories is about $0.13. Both of those are healthy options and you’re saving about 63%. That’s a deal. One snack my kids love are ice pops and what I love is that for only $1.50 a piece. That’s a deal. An easy way to save is to shop alone. If you have a plan and they go into the store and your kids are asking for specific items to go on the cart, you’re probably going to spend more than you should. So, the best bet is to leave them at home if you can. One of the reasons, it’s easy to overspend on snacks is because our kids want us to get the fun snacks that everyone else has. Now, the good new is, you can get those fun snacks if you watch for coupons. There are lots of coupons for items that are new or they’re the popular with kids like this one. I have a coupon worth $3.00. You don’t have to spend $100.00 a month on snacks if you know how to shop smart. Use coupons, buy fresh produce in season, buy snacks in bulk and bag them yourself. Don’t pay for packaging. Buy ice pops, $1.50 a piece. About $45.00 before our deals, $39.00 before coupons and using my Discover Card, I earn a cash back bonus of up to 1%. $29.61, that’s a far cry from a $100.00. That’s a 70% saving and you’re getting your family a whole month of healthy snacks, that’s a lot. Let me show you how I got a month’s worth of snacks for less than $30.00. First of all, avoid the cost of packaging. For example, those 100 calorie snack packs are popular but it only takes a few seconds to make your own snack packs instead of paying $0.45 for a package of pretzels I can make my own for less than $0.10. You can also save on beverages. Instead of paying for individual cans of soda at about $0.30 a can, you can make your own beverages from drink mixes and that’s only pennies of serving. I also use coupons in sales when I buy things like canola bars or crackers. That’s an easy way to save 75%. You can even print coupons for those. And then finally, instead of paying the cost of prepackaged brownies and cookies and those kinds of sweets, you can bake your own easily from mixes or from scratch and that’s a deep discount. You’ll save at least 75% when you do it yourself. For more tips on how to save big, watch my Web Series on couponmom.com.